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Capitalizing Race Names
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Capitalizing Race Names |
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Christopher
Moderator
Member Rara Avis
since 1999-08-02
Posts 8296Purgatorial Incarceration 
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I've looked in my [currently] limited library to find an answer to what i'm sure is a silly question, but found to my disappointment that - sigh - even authors aren't consistent. My query is this - when do you capitalize the name of a race? When i searched, i found authors who capitalized it everytime, no matter what and ones who didn't in certain places, or not at all. it's frustrating! the human, Bob or - the Human, Bob |
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Christopher
Moderator
Member Rara Avis
since 1999-08-02
Posts 8296Purgatorial Incarceration |
and - i'm assuming that the rules would extend to non-human races as well? the pyrian, A'daèn or - the Pyrian, A'daèn ? |
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Severn Member Rara Avis
since 1999-07-17
Posts 7704 |
What? You're trying to ascertain a rule??? ~shock~ I think that authors go with what they want really...perhaps there is no clear cut system...  K |
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Christopher
Moderator
Member Rara Avis
since 1999-08-02
Posts 8296Purgatorial Incarceration |
cope. lot of help YOU are...  |
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Severn Member Rara Avis
since 1999-07-17
Posts 7704 |
~later~ Oh yes, I am aren't I?...I'm a headache, a nuisance and all I can say is: survive  Sigh, some general off-the-top thoughts then... Perhaps non-capitalised in action...the human walked the dog, the human watered the plants. Cap: The Humans had colonised the planet alongside the [insert other capitalised race]. Perhaps capitalised also if a member of a nonhuman race was observing a member of the human race eg.. The elf watched the Human doing so and so...and vice versa: the human watched the Elf doing so and so. ?? 'Better' she says with a wink and leer... winkandleery Kwill come back with more possibles should I think of them.. |
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Not A Poet Member Elite
since 1999-11-03
Posts 3885Oklahoma, USA |
I think the Indianapolis 500 is usually capitalized and probably some others too. Heck, maybe even all of them. |
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Crazy Eddie Member
since 2002-09-14
Posts 178 |
I’m not sure there is a firm rule but I understand the confusion. Classification by species would normally dictate that lower case was used, if you think in terms of dog, cat, human, fish etc. The confusion occurs when the category of type coincides with, and is derived from, a place name, Chinese, American, Martian etc. The names of locations are given capitalisation to emphasise their importance, the labels of the inhabitants of those locations inherit the capitalisation.* This would suggest that human would be lower case but Earthling would be upper, does that make sense? Well it would do apart from where two categories of race are used in proximity, using Martian to denote an inhabitant of Mars demands that equal importance and emphasis should be given to Human. Where the name of the race isn’t a direct derivative of a location or similarly capitalised origin I believe consistency is the only rule you need to adhere to. *(This is also true of derivatives from other normally capitalised origins - Christian for example) [This message has been edited by Crazy Eddie (10-09-2002 02:55 PM).] |
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Nan
Administrator
Member Seraphic
since 1999-05-20
Posts 21191Cape Cod Massachusetts USA |
Some humans are English, some humans are American, some humans are New Zealanders, and some humans are crazy... Right Eddie??..  |
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